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FailedImitator's Posts

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One Cinematograper, One Film about 2 years ago

Conrad Hall — Road To Perdition.

I don’t think there’s anybody who can shoot shadows quite like him. The entire movie, I was just in awe.

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Are You Mad as Hell? about 2 years ago

I don’t know anything about distribution, but I do know a little bit about Four-Eyed Monsters. I watched the podcast a few months back. Most of it was somewhere between crap and mediocre, but the last few episodes were actually pretty good.

Now the question is, does making a half-way decent indie movie make Arin a distribution genius? Maybe. But will his system work for every independent movie uploaded on the website? Definitely not. There’s a reason why only 10 movies got distribution at Sundance.

I met this dude a couple of months back who tried to lure me into a pyramid scheme. “Look, I made ten grand easy last month from this thing,” he told me. “That’s how I could afford this shiny gold Rolex you keep staring at”

I wasn’t even looking at wrist at the time.

I don’t know why, but watching this video, Arin reminded me of that guy.

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Are You Mad as Hell? about 2 years ago

K.J. Farring​ton — I agree with you wholeheartedly. The word “Indie”, along with that bloody faux hand-drawn title font and “indie music” is now slapped on almost every movie, whether or not said movie is actually an independent production. It’s just that unlike you, I don’t have very strong feelings against it. In fact, I find it slightly amusing :)

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Are You Mad as Hell? about 2 years ago

Despite what everyone has said here, I think Arin Crumley is brilliant. No, I’m not even joking. Before Openindie, he did From Here To Awesome. You know what both those projects have in common (apart from Arin Crumley’s haircut of course)? Being giant publicity for Four-Eyed Monsters. Now he may not be able to get people to see your films, but he sure as hell has gotten you (and your friends) to see his (or at the very least know of its existence). In my book, that’s a win for Arin.

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Iron Man 2? about 2 years ago

I like it, but it wasn’t that great. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I felt it should’ve been longer. A lot of things happening in such little time, and some happened just a tad too fast. Without spoiling too much, something that took a good part of the fist movie to develop took all but a few seconds in this one.

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Inception (2010, Christopher Nolan) teaser Trailer about 2 years ago

I prefer the second trailer, but this one’s pretty great too. I am so looking forward to this movie.

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The importance of revisiting/re-watching films? about 2 years ago

I agree with what almost everyone has said.

First time I watched Fight Club, I was about 11. Didn’t know what the hell was going on. Saw it again 8 years later, and it was an absolute delight. A similar thing happened with Dial M For Murder. Watched it, for what I thought was the first time on the plane a few years back. Only towards the ending did I realize that I must’ve seen it (or at least caught a few scenes on TV) when I was much younger.

But that aside, I sometimes re-watch movies just because, but I almost always get a friend who’s never seen it. I like re-watching through other people’s eyes.

A little over a year ago, I saw an early screening of Slumdog Millionaire on Thursday. On Friday, which was the opening, I came back with my friends and saw it again. Saturday, I heard my flatmates saying they wanted to go see it; I joined them for a third viewing :)

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The importance of revisiting/re-watching films? about 2 years ago

Pradipt​a Mitra — Weird coincidence. The Dial M For Murder thing :)

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bad spelling about 2 years ago

Like most people here, English is my second language. And I do care about spelling. And grammar. And punctuation. The whole shebang. But every now and then, I get it wrong, especially with words like “there” and “they’re” because the computer wouldn’t correct those. And you know what, it doesn’t really bother me. So when I see other people misspell like that, I just assume they’re like me, and that’s fine.

But yes, I do get where you’re coming from. It’s like some people don’t even try.

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mubi about 2 years ago

Please please please please God let this be some elaborate plot to get the site to be a trending topic on twitter — then we can have our Auteurs back. Please God please.

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mubi about 2 years ago

There’s only one person in the world right now who I think would be happy with this change; a friend of mine. His name is Mubi, and his favorite movie is Ninja Assassin.

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mubi about 2 years ago

Type gewgle.com, it takes you to Google. If The Auteurs is so damn hard to spell, why don’t they just get theautuers.com, theatuers.com and theauturs.com and redirect everything to the site? I’m just saying…

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MUBI: VOTE about 2 years ago

The Auteurs, in a heartbeat (70)

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short film I directed almost 2 years ago

A few shots were interesting. Dialogue was a bit unnatural. I liked the guy in the white shirt too. All in all, I think it was a fair attempt.

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COULD PAINTING BE CONSIDERED "ART"?! over 1 year ago

Are we talking about painting, like, painting a bedroom wall here? Or painting miniature taxi cabs and toy soldiers? I know for a fact that painting fingernails is an art form.

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Watch my short film? (shot in a 24 minute single take) over 1 year ago

Well, the first thing that came to me after I finished watching was that this is not a slasher film. Not really. That’s like calling Richard Linklater’s Slacker a sci-fi film because one of the characters talked about the possibility of an alternate universe in passing.

A couple’s relationship is tense because the boyfriend is moving and they don’t want to talk about it. Also, a pseudo-love triangle involving the boyfriend’s best friend. That’s what I got from your short film. Throw in the abandoned house and one-take in there, and on paper, this sounds like a great idea. And for the most part, it is. My biggest problem with it is that it was unnecessarily long. A bit underwritten too (I know you wrote it in 24 hours, but still).

I found the part where the best friend was talking to the boyfriend about the girl (while she was in the very next room), and then immediately going into the next room to talk to her about the boyfriend (who saw still in the next room) very unrealistic. I found myself wondering what she was doing while they were talking about her. Was she just sitting there waiting for her turn? At least the boyfriend had music and beer in the room he was in.

Also, at the very end when they were looking for her, I found that a bit unrealistic too. It wasn’t like they were in a cabin out in the woods or something. They were at home, more or less. A place they all knew. Probably a place they grew up in. This girl, she just had a fight with her boyfriend and then disappeared. It’s very probable that she went home. It’s realistic for her to leave without telling them (because she’s pissed). It’s also realistic and very probable that she’ll switch-off her phone (because she’s pissed at them). In fact the only thing unrealistic was them getting worried and looking for her all over (even though technically, only the guy who may or may not have a crush on her got worried, still, she’d only been gone for less than 5 minutes).

But it’s a not all bad. I really liked a few things about the film. To mention the two of them: The cool set and the totally amazing camerawork. Also, the girlfriend’s acting was good and the cinematography can be creative when it wants to.

Finally, I want you to know that I’m not trying to be a troll here or anything, just telling you what I honestly feel about your film. This is just my opinion, I should say, and I may very well be wrong. In fact I probably am. So take this comment with the largest grain of salt you can find :)

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Is acting art? over 1 year ago

I don’t think acting in itself is art, much like I don’t think painting is art or writing is art or photography is art. But I do believe that acting CAN be art, much like I believe that all those other things can also be art under the right circumstances.

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Screenplay for Short: Snuffed After a Slow Drag over 1 year ago

I don’t really know what to think about the script other than maybe you should lay off the camera movements and editing shenanigans until the shooting script. For now, focus on telling your story. Also, I too believe in CeltX.

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COULD PAINTING BE CONSIDERED "ART"?! over 1 year ago

@Maverick: Maybe all the paintings were commissioned by the leader of the tribe, and the artists got paid in Mammoth fur and porcupine encrusted clubs. Just saying…

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Short comedy, would love feedback! over 1 year ago

Wow that was really good. I found the cinematography in particular very striking. And I agree with Two Plus Two on the theatre guy, the transition and what the driver did with the bag.

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But it has great depth of field... over 1 year ago

I don’t know anything about the Alexa except for the fact that it’s the new Arri digital camera that’ll apparently kill RED. What I do know is that both the Cinematographer and Producer in the clip above are schmucks.

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Directors with amazing final films? over 1 year ago

I second Kieslowski. Red was a masterpiece.

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COULD PAINTING BE CONSIDERED "ART"?! over 1 year ago

Hahaha. This reminds me of Untitled.

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Baffled by the love for "Gone Baby Gone"!!! over 1 year ago

Same here. Loved Gone Baby Gone, mostly for Casey Affleck’s performance. But then again, I went in with very low expectations too. Plus, I only saw it the one time, so my opinion may change after a second viewing. Still looking forward to The Town though.

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COMMERCIALISATION OF CINEMA GONE TOO FAR! HOW MUCH LONGER UNTIL WE SEE... over 1 year ago

I say better commercial breaks in the middle than tastelessly crowbarring the ads in there like this — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HpIZrOH4zc

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Theresa Russell needs a comeback vehicle! over 1 year ago

^^ http://mubi.com/films/26103 — Good, Documentable enough? :)

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why did so many highly regarded people in the arts throughout history struggle in school over 1 year ago

I’m enjoying the discussion going on here very much, and although I don’t really have that much to add, I’d like to say that I partially disagree with Glemaud about hierarchy in art.

I’m a photographer, you see, and I’ve been taking pictures since I was very little. I was decent too, or at least I thought I was until I started taking photography classes a few years back. The knowledge of composition and framing and colors — the hierarchy of photography techniques, so to speak, helped transform my photography. Now I know there’s a question on whether or not my photography (or most photography in general) is art, but I won’t go into that here. The fact is I partially agree with Deckard about knowing the rules before breaking them.

Now I say “partially” because speaking from my experience at least, the photography I feel to me is art, that is me trying to say something and not just an attempt to make something look pretty — that kind of photography most often than not breaks the rules. Unconventional. And such pictures exist even in the days before my photography classes.

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why did so many highly regarded people in the arts throughout history struggle in school over 1 year ago

Rossi,

I think it depends. Me, the classes I took were mostly workshops by professional photographers and not formal school classes. One of said photographers from the workshops once said — Nobody is going to ask for your qualifications when they want to hire you, all they need to see is your portfolio. Or something like that, I’m just paraphrasing.

On the other end, I have a friend who’s currently doing his Masters in Film, and has had his shorts screened in Berlin and Venice. He said that wouldn’t have happened had he not known the people he did, most of whom he met in school. Now did the Masters degree make his films better? That is neither here nor there, but it sure did help in getting his films out there.

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